The Hubble Space Telescope has turned its gaze to the closest massive star-forming region to Earth – the Orion Nebula, which is located 1,300 light-years away.
The European Space Agency writes about this.
The nebula is a nursery for hundreds of newborn stars, including the protostars HOPS 150 and HOPS 153. HOPS 150 is visible at the upper right of the image, a binary system in which two young protostars orbit each other. Each has a small dusty disk of material around it from which they feed. Both are halfway through becoming mature stars.
ESA / Hubble / NASA
A narrow, colorful stream, called a jet, runs along the left side of the image. It comes from a nearby protostar, HOPS 153, which is not in the frame. HOPS 153 is still very young, so it is deeply embedded in its nebula and enveloped in a cloud of cold, dense gas.
The transition from a tightly wrapped, young protostar to a fully-fledged star will have a profound impact on HOPS 153ʼs environment. As cosmic gas falls on the protostar, its jets eject stellar material and energy into interstellar space, heating the gas. This allows HOPS 153 to regulate the formation of new stars nearby and even slow its own growth.
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